RUSSIA CLAIMS CAPTURING OF SOLEDAR, UKRAINE DENIES

Just minutes after Russia's defence ministry said its forces captured the Ukrainian town of Soledar, Ukraine denied the claim and said "severe" fighting is ongoing in the area. The nearly destroyed town in eastern Ukraine has recently become the epicentre of the war.

Russia's announcement that it had captured Soledar was Moscow's first claim of victory after months of setbacks on the battlefield. The defence ministry announced that "the liberation of the city of Soledar" was completed on the evening of January 12. It added that the capture of Soledar would pave the way for more "successful offensive operations" in the region.

Denying Russia's claim, Sergiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for the eastern group of the Ukrainian armed forces said, "Ukraine's armed forces have the situation under control in difficult conditions."

Soledar's importance comes from its location in Ukraine’s Donetsk province, one of four that Moscow annexed in September. For Moscow, Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk province became important with Kremlin treating the area as Russian territory.

According to the Russian defence ministry's announcement, taking control of Soledar would allow Russian forces “to cut supply lines for the Ukrainian forces” in Bakhmut and then “block and encircle the Ukrainian units there”.

COVID CASES IN CHINA TOUCH 900 MILLION - STUDY

COVID cases are expected to spike in China over the Lunar New Year.

Some 900 million people in China have been infected with the coronavirus as of January 11, according to a study by Peking University.

The report estimates that 64% of the country’s population has the virus.

It ranks Gansu province, where 91% of the people are reported to be infected, at the top, followed by Yunnan (84%) and Qinghai (80%).

A top Chinese epidemiologist has also warned that cases will surge in rural China over the lunar New Year.

The peak of China’s COVID wave is expected to last two to three months, added Zeng Guang, ex-head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese are traveling to their hometowns—many for the first time since the pandemic began—ahead of the lunar New Year on January 23.

China has stopped providing daily COVID statistics since abandoning zero COVID.

But hospitals in big cities, where healthcare facilities are better and more easily accessible, have become crowded with COVID patients as the virus has spread through the country.

SPECIAL COUNSEL TO PROBE BIDEN CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS

The U.S. attorney-general named an independent prosecutor on Thursday to investigate President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, after a furore over secret papers found at his former office exploded with the discovery of a second batch.

The new find – like the original, from Biden’s time as Vice-President – was uncovered in the garage of his home in Wilmington, Delaware, where he often spends weekends, the White House said.

Attorney-General Merrick Garland announced that Robert Hur, an appointee of Mr. Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, would be empowered to examine whether the cache violated any law.

“Under the regulations, the extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel,” Mr. Garland said.

The appointment came hours after the White House acknowledged the second batch of papers but did not address their contents – supercharging a scandal over a first set found at a Washington think tank where Mr. Biden had an office.

Republicans in Congress, who have been accusing the White House of a cover-up, swiftly announced their own inquiry to run independently of the criminal probe.

The disclosures have prompted comparisons to the special counsel investigation of Mr. Trump’s hoarding of hundreds of classified materials at his Florida beachfront home and his alleged obstruction of government efforts to get them back.

“I take classified documents and classified material seriously. We’re cooperating fully (and) completely with the Justice Department’s review,” Mr. Biden told reporters.

“As part of that process, my lawyers reviewed other places where documents from my time as Vice-President were stored, and they finished the review last night.”

NATO TO SEND AIRCRAFT TO ROMANIA TO TRACK RUSSIANS

NATO will send surveillance aircraft to Romania to bolster its eastern flank and “monitor Russian military activity”, the alliance said on Friday.

The military alliance has strengthened its presence in the region since Russia invaded Ukraine, which borders Romania, a NATO member. “Our AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System planes) can detect aircraft hundreds of kilometres away, making them a key capability for NATO’s deterrence and defence posture,” spokesperson Oana Lungescu said.

The planes will arrive on Tuesday in Otopeni and are part of a fleet of 14 NATO Boeing E-3A AWACS aircraft in Geilenkirchen.

BRAZIL SUPREME COURT INCLUDES JAIR BOLSONARO IN RIOT PROBE

Brazil's Supreme Court has agreed to include right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro in its investigation into the storming of government buildings in Brasília.

It is the first time that Mr Bolsonaro has been named among those potentially responsible for the 8 January riots.

It comes days after Mr Bolsonaro posted a video questioning the legitimacy of October's presidential election.

Prosecutors said Mr Bolsonaro may have incited a crime by making such claims.

They asked the Supreme Court on Friday to include the ex-president in the investigation.

The Bolsonaro video claimed that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was not voted into office but rather chosen by the Supreme Court and Brazil's electoral authority.

While the video was posted after Sunday's riot and later deleted, the prosecutor general's office argued its content was sufficient to justify investigating Mr Bolsonaro's conduct beforehand.

He left Brazil for the United States in late December, after refusing to take part in the handover of power to Lula.

Many businessmen and officials are being investigated, including Brasilia's former head of security, Anderson Torres, who flew to the US ahead of the riots.

On Thursday, police visited his home and found a document reportedly trying to reverse the election result.

Mr Torres argues the document has been taken out of context, but Justice Minister Flavio Dino has said he must turn himself in by Monday or face extradition.

TRUMP ORG FINED $1.6M FOR TAX FRAUD

New York : Donald Trump’s company was fined $1. 6 million Friday as punishment for a scheme in which the former president’s top executives dodged personal income taxes on lavish job perks — a symbolic, hardly crippling blow for an enterprise boasting billions of dollars in assets.

Afine was the only penalty a judge could impose on the Trump Organisation for its conviction last month for 17 tax crimes, including conspiracy and falsifying business records. The amount imposed by Judge Juan Manuel Merchan was the maximum allowed by law, an amount equal to double the taxes a small group of executives avoided on benefits including rent-free apartments in Trump buildings, luxury cars and private school tuition.

Trump himself was not on trial and denied any knowledge of his executives evading taxes illegally. The Trump Organisation was charged through its subsidiaries Trump Corp. , which was fined $810,000; and Trump Payroll Corp. , which was fined $800,000. In a statement released after sentencing, the Trump Organisation said it did nothing wrong and would appeal the verdict.

CENTRAL BANK BARS NEPALESE FROM INVESTING ABROAD

Kathmandu : Nepal’s central bank on Friday barred Nepalese nationals from investing in foreign countries, warning that such a move would invite strict punishment. According to a notice issued by Nepal Rastra Bank, the country’s central bank, Nepalese nationals are not allowed to purchase land, house, property, debenture and deposit money in foreign banks and financial institutions abroad.

Except under the provision specifically mentioned by the bank, no one shall engage in making this kind of payment in a foreign country, the notice said. The bank urged citizens not to do any work related to payment abroad. The notice also warned that if anyone is violating the rules, strict action will be taken under the prevailing laws.

In April 2022, Nepal’s central bank announced the ban on import of vehicles and other luxury items citing liquidity crunch. Nepal’s foreign exchange reserves rose by about 3% in mid-December to touch $9. 8billion — enough to cover 8. 7 months of imports —from mid-July levels, according to central bank data.

PERU CLOSES MACHU PICCHU AIRPORT AS NATIONWIDE PROTESTS PERSIST

Rail and air links to Peru’s famed Machu Picchu site had been cut early on Friday after a flare-up in weeks-long protests that has killed dozens. The airport in Cusco, gateway to Peru’s tourism crown jewel, was closed as protests kicked off in the city, leading to clashes with police.

LANKA TO SLASH MILITARY BY A THIRD TO CUT COSTS

Colombo : Sri Lanka will slash its army by a third to 1,35,000 personnel by next year and to 1,00,000 by 2030, the state minister of defence said on Friday, as the country tries to cut costs in the face of its worst economic crisis in over seven decades. “Military spending is basically state-borne expenditure which indirectly stimulates and opens avenues for economic growth by way of assuring national and human security,” Premitha Bandara Thennakoon said in a statement. The aim of the move is to create a “technically and tactically sound and well-balanced” defence force by 2030, Thennakoon further said.

The size of Sri Lanka’s armed forces peaked between2017 and 2019, with 3,17,000 personnel, according to World Bank data. The share of the defence sector in Sri Lanka’s total expenditure peaked in 2021, at 2. 3% of GDP, but fell to 2. 03%last year, according to think tank Verite Research.

The island nation is still reeling from months of food and fuel shortages last year. President Ranil Wickremesinghehas hiked taxes and imposed harsh spending cuts to smooth the passage of an expected IMF bailout following a government debt default. Sri Lanka warned this week it had barely enough revenue to pay public employees and pensions despite huge tax hikes. The economy shrank an estimated 8. 7% last year.

JAPAN INDICTS SUSPECT FOR ABE’S MURDER

Japanese prosecutors on Friday indicted the man suspected of killing former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a local district court said on Friday. Nara District Public Prosecutors Office indicted Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, on murder charges and for violating gun laws, a spokesperson at Nara district court said.

The indictment came after concluding a roughly six-month psychiatric evaluation, according to local media. Yamagami had been arrested on the spot on July 8 after allegedly shooting Abe with a handmade gun while he was giving a speech in Nara.